Geotargeted news and advertisement delivery system

• US 9,195,995 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2014
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nexstar Broadcasting Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nexstar Broadcasting Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tholkes, Michael, Boike, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Behnamian, Shahriar
• Application Number:
  US14/479,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20140378168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 445 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 345/419, 345/473, 701/117, 701/420, 701/532
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A system that provides content and/or ad publishers the ability to sell and target content, including “deals,” to mobile devices of users when those users and their mobile devices are located within the defined geographic zone. The content may be targeted and mass distributed to all mobile devices having a registered address within the defined geographic area. The content creator and/or content distributor can manually define the regions where they desire to distribute content by plotting vertices on a map to form a polygon enclosing a geographic region. Regions may be defined by population, retail locations, content and/or ad categories and other relevant criteria. The System User can manage the type of message delivered based upon the time of day and day of the week. Such options provide the content creator with granular management of its content based upon the defined regions established by the content creator and/or content distributor.

Claims

1. A system for providing content comprising:

a database for storing content provided by a content creator in an electronic memory; and

a content manager for accepting geographic location inputs as vertices of a polygon on a digital map, said polygon defining boundaries of a geographic region, where the content is associated with said geographic region;

said content manager including a processor for comparing said geographic region with geographic location data associated with an end user electronic device, and transmitting the content associated with the geographic region to the end user electronic device when said geographic location data is within said geographic region;

wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region; and

wherein the first geographic region comprises a first priority level and the second geographic region comprises a second priority level.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the digital map is interactive, allowing a system user to input vertices by clicking on the desired vertex locations on said map.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the vertices are input by latitude and longitude coordinates.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.

5. A content manager system for providing content comprising:

a geofence creation subsystem for providing a digital map of a geographic area and accepting geographic location inputs as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of a geographic region;

an advertiser selection subsystem for allowing a content creator to associate content with at least one geographic region;

a geolocation analysis subsystem for receiving geographic location data from an end user electronic device and comparing the geographic location data with the geographic region; and

a content transmission system for transmitting the content associated with the at least one geographic region to the end user electronic device when said geographic location data is within the at least one geographic region;

wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region; and

wherein the first geographic region comprises a first priority level and the second geographic region comprises a second priority level.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the digital map is interactive, allowing a system user to input vertices by clicking on the desired vertex locations on said map.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the vertices are input by latitude and longitude coordinates.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.

9. A method for presenting geographically targeted content comprising:

providing, via a processor, a digital map of a geographic area;

receiving inputs of geographic locations as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of a first geographic region, and storing said inputs in electronic memory of a database;

receiving content associated with the first geographic region;

determining the geographic location of an end user electronic device;

comparing, via a processor, the geographic location of the end user electronic device with said first geographic region; and

displaying said content associated with said first geographic region on a display of said end user electronic device when said geographic location is within said first geographic region;

wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region; and

wherein the first geographic region comprises a first priority level and the second geographic region comprises a second priority level.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the vertices are input by a system user by clicking on the desired vertex locations on said map.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the vertices are input by latitude and longitude coordinates.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.

13. An end user electronic device for displaying content comprising:

a geofence subsystem for providing a digital map of a geographic area and accepting geographic location inputs as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of at least one geographic region;

an advertiser selection subsystem for associating content with the at least one geographic region;

a geolocation analysis subsystem for determining a geographic location of the end user electronic device and comparing the geographic location with the at least one geographic region; and

a display for displaying the content associated with the at least one geographic region when said geographic location of the end user electronic device is within the geographic region;

wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region; and

wherein the advertiser selection subsystem accepts a priority level input for each of the overlapping first and second regions.

14. The end user electronic device of claim 13 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.